This is Vladimir Nabokov's second novel, written and published in
Russian in 1928, when he was a 28-year-old émigré living in Berlin. It
was recently roughed into English by Nabokov's son Dmitri, then
tightened and buffed to a cold brilliance by the author. "Of all my
novels," says Nabokov, "this bright brute is the gayest. Expatriation,
destitution, nostalgia had no effect on its elaborate and rapturous
composition."

Actually, his later novels, notably Lolita and Pale Fire, are far more
elaborate. Even Laughter in the...